Friday, April 27, 2012

FOXNews.com: SWAT Teams Surround 'Survivalist's' Bunker

FOXNews.com
FOX News Channel - We Report. You Decide. // via fulltextrssfeed.com
SWAT Teams Surround 'Survivalist's' Bunker
Apr 28th 2012, 05:47

NORTH BEND, Wash. –  SWAT teams Friday surrounded the bunker of a double murder suspect believed to have been behind the deaths of his wife and daughter whose bodies were found inside a burning Washington state home earlier this week.

Almost four dozen officers were at the scene at Rattlesnake Ridge, south of North Bend, where 41-year-old Peter Keller was thought to be holed up.

Police said they "heard and saw movement" in the structure although they could not confirm that the person inside was Keller, KIRO-TV reported.

Efforts were being made to communicate with the individual via a megaphone but cops had so far received no response.

King County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sgt. Cindi West told The Seattle Times that deputies also fired tear gas at the bunker but it did not appear to have penetrated the well-built fort.

West added that Keller -- described as a survivalist and an avid hiker -- might be wearing a gas mask.

"It could very well be that he's waiting for us to come in and get him. This is a very fluid and dangerous situation," Sheriff Steve Strachan said.

Strachan said that the standoff could last hours or even days.

According to court documents, Keller had been preparing for "the end of the world" and had stockpiled weapons and food in the woods. He was also described by people who knew him as a "survivalist" with a "distaste for authority."

Keller owned handguns, rifles, silencers and body armor, one of his colleagues at an IT firm told detectives.

It was believed that Keller had been building the bunker for some eight years. West said that police managed to locate the well-hidden structure from photographs found in his home.

SWAT teams began a systematic search of the area at 5:00 a.m. local time Friday, the Snoqualmie Valley Record reported. It was not immediately known what time they found the bunker.

The bunker is off trail at Rattlesnake Ridge and witnesses reported seeing Keller's pickup truck in the area in recent weeks.

Keller was charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree murder and a single count of arson.

His wife Lynnettee Keller, 41, and teenage daughter, Kaylene, 19, were found shot dead inside a burning home in North Bend, about 30 miles southeast of Seattle, on Sunday.

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